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Corporate boards, shareholding structures and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies

Corporate boards, shareholding structures and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies
Corporate boards, shareholding structures and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies
Purpose: This paper investigates the level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practices, and the extent to which board characteristics and shareholding structures can explain discernible differences in the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure in a number of emerging Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) economies.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a number of multivariate regression methods, namely ordinary least squares, weighted, non-linear, lagged-effects, two stage least squares and fixed-effects regression techniques to analyse data collected for a sample of listed corporations in emerging MENA economies from 2009 to 2014.

Findings: First, in general, MENA listed firms have a relatively lower level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance practices compared to listed firms in developed countries. Second, our evidence suggests that corporate board characteristics, including board diversity and audit firm size have a positive association with the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure. In contrast, the findings indicate that unitary board leadership structure, director shareholdings, and government shareholdings impact negatively on the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure. The study does not, however, find any evidence to suggest that board size and family shareholdings have any significant relationship with the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure. The findings are generally robust to alternative measures and potential endogeneity problems.

Originality/value: This is one of the first empirical efforts at investigating the association between corporate governance mechanisms and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies that observably relies on a multi-theoretical framework within a longitudinal cross-country research setting.
corporate governance, voluntary disclosure, board characteristics, shareholding structures, emerging MENA economies
2042-1168
2-27
Sarhan, Ahmed
c81ed023-28d0-4e5f-975c-a91f9695a163
Ntim, Collins
1f344edc-8005-4e96-8972-d56c4dade46b
Sarhan, Ahmed
c81ed023-28d0-4e5f-975c-a91f9695a163
Ntim, Collins
1f344edc-8005-4e96-8972-d56c4dade46b

Sarhan, Ahmed and Ntim, Collins (2019) Corporate boards, shareholding structures and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies. Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, 9 (1), 2-27. (doi:10.1108/JAEE-03-2017-0033).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Purpose: This paper investigates the level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practices, and the extent to which board characteristics and shareholding structures can explain discernible differences in the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure in a number of emerging Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) economies.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a number of multivariate regression methods, namely ordinary least squares, weighted, non-linear, lagged-effects, two stage least squares and fixed-effects regression techniques to analyse data collected for a sample of listed corporations in emerging MENA economies from 2009 to 2014.

Findings: First, in general, MENA listed firms have a relatively lower level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance practices compared to listed firms in developed countries. Second, our evidence suggests that corporate board characteristics, including board diversity and audit firm size have a positive association with the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure. In contrast, the findings indicate that unitary board leadership structure, director shareholdings, and government shareholdings impact negatively on the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure. The study does not, however, find any evidence to suggest that board size and family shareholdings have any significant relationship with the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure. The findings are generally robust to alternative measures and potential endogeneity problems.

Originality/value: This is one of the first empirical efforts at investigating the association between corporate governance mechanisms and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies that observably relies on a multi-theoretical framework within a longitudinal cross-country research setting.

Text
Accepted 12 April 2018 JAEE Manuscript - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 12 April 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 6 March 2019
Published date: 21 May 2019
Keywords: corporate governance, voluntary disclosure, board characteristics, shareholding structures, emerging MENA economies

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 419683
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/419683
ISSN: 2042-1168
PURE UUID: a1bd7767-acf2-4bd5-bea0-f449d91bb463
ORCID for Collins Ntim: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1042-4056

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 19 Apr 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 06:28

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Contributors

Author: Ahmed Sarhan
Author: Collins Ntim ORCID iD

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